Publicity stunt? Struggling ISIL reportedly executes 25 in acid bath

As it continues to lose territory in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) is looking to sustain it relevance by turning to increasingly heinous methods of execution.

ISIL has previously drowned, burned and exploded prisoners.

According to the Iraqi News website, ISIL recently killed 25 people in its Iraqi stronghold at Mosul 25 by dissolving them in acid. Those executed were charged with spying for Iraqi security forces.

“ISIL put the citizens in a large tub containing nitric acid inside one of its headquarters,” a witness told Iraqi News. The jihadists “tied each person with a rope and lowered him in the tub, which contains nitric acid, till the victims’ organs dissolved.”

Nitric acid is a highly corrosive and poisonous liquid, most commonly used to manufacture ammonium nitrate for fertilizer and explosives, as well in the production of steel.

According the U.S.-led coalition, ISIL has lost about 40 percent of the territory it once held in Iraq and some 20 percent in Syria.